Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will try to be brief because much ground has been covered by various speakers. We are discussing sustaining small rural businesses. We often hear through media and even in debates in this House that rural Ireland is dying. Depopulation is a challenge, as is supporting rural businesses. I am heartened to hear that there are substantial supports for rural dwellers. We have heard of some of these supports through the various agencies that are presenting here this morning. Maybe we are not communicating these supports enough. Listening to discussions this morning, I believe many of us can be caught up in our own environment and work and we forget about communicating to the wider populace. Perhaps this committee can assist with co-ordinating communication of various supports from the agencies we have heard about this morning to the wider rural populace. There is work to be done in that regard. One hears confusion about one stop shop services or access to supports. Whatever it is, there is a lack of communication. That is not a negative. I am trying to be constructive in how we co-ordinate and communicate the supports for rural Ireland. I ask each agency to take that away and, when devising their strategies for next year, with their five-year and ten-year plans, consider how we can penetrate into rural Ireland in order that there is a better understanding of the supports they provide. We would be doing a good day's work with that. We would be creating awareness and educating the people that need the agencies' supports, and then they will not come to politicians, Citizens Information and other places. They will know exactly where to go to get the required support.

In my experience, it is often the same people who go back for supports because they understand how it works and where the grants are. In each county, one will find pockets of villages or towns that are very good at drawing down grants because they have that understanding and capacity. Multitudes of other rural towns and villages do not have the capacity and probably need the support more than anybody. The challenge for all of us is penetrating into those areas. It is great to hear about the positive work that has been done to support rural Ireland because we often hear that nothing has been done. We are hearing quite the opposite here this morning. I want to emphasise that fact.

I gave my views on Pobal and, while I do not want to call it bureaucracy, how we can break down accessibility to funding and awareness, as I emphasised already.

I acknowledge the work of ICOS and the co-operative movement. I remember learning about the co-operative movement in Ireland in my history books. We should never forget about its power, about how it works from the ground up and about how it can build on our natural assets and strengths. I encourage the witnesses to continue in that work. It integrates well with rural living. It is a proven model of working.

I acknowledge new initiatives such as accelerating the creation of rural nascent start-ups, ACORNS.

I am open to correction but I understand Microfinance Ireland came into being because our banking system was broken and people did not have access to credit. Microfinance Ireland stepped into the breach to provide credit lines where they were not being given through the traditional method. I have a couple of questions to Microfinance Ireland with regard to that. The witnesses gave us some percentages relating to the number of loans being allocated outside of Dublin. What is the regional loan allocation? Will the witnesses be more specific on that in order that the joint committee can hear exactly where those loans are going? Are they going to larger towns or to smaller towns and villages? I am not sure if the witnesses have that level of detail to hand today. If they do not, perhaps they could forward it to us. Are the loans for rural enterprises or both urban and rural enterprises? Is there a specific loan category for rural enterprises? Whether rural tourism, food production or other rural initiatives, since that is this committee's focus, is there such a category of loans in the microfinance structures and, if not, will they consider distilling their loan book in order that we have a better understanding of where the loans are going and whether they are having an impact in rural Ireland? The witnesses mentioned the quantity of loans and that they are lending some millions of euro per year. Have they risen or fallen each year since Microfinance Ireland was established? Are the banks getting back into their traditional market? If they are, while I do not mean this disrespectfully, the function of Microfinance Ireland should be diminishing since it was set up to step into the breach for struggling areas.

I have a general question for all the agencies. Are they competing for the same public funding to allocate to the various people that they support? Are they competing for the same client base in rural areas? That could be healthy. That is not a disrespectful remark. If there is a certain number of rural entrepreneurs in County Waterford, where I am from, do the witnesses' organisations all compete for those customers to support them?

There is a huge amount of rural opportunities. The Waterford greenway is a perfect example of a rural initiative supported by a multitude of agencies, local authorities, Leader and State funding. That has been the catalyst for the development of rural enterprise along a 50 km route in Waterford, which we are amazed with. It shows that, when we exploit our natural assets and spin off a bit of initiative and momentum, it can work with the support of agencies such as those in attendance today. I am positive and hopeful for rural Ireland. The negatives that we often hear are challenges which have always been there. There are changes in life, including online challenges, changes in globalisation, and Brexit. There are always challenges but rural communities have always been resilient. They innovate and reinvent themselves. We will continue to live in rural Ireland but we need to innovate in how we assist it.

We all mentioned broadband. It is a huge challenge for us. How can the agencies, whose representatives are attending at the committee today, collaborate to ensure we assist in delivering broadband to the people who need it in rural Ireland? We should not just leave it to one Government Department. How can we, as agents of the State and people with connections in all areas of rural Ireland, assist in collaborating to deliver rural broadband? The technology and the will is there. If we get together we can do it over the coming years.